How much *cash*?

[Stratocastermagic]

I've been looking at various threads on budgeting etc, and clearly everyone's needs are different.
What I was wondering was how much cash to carry with me. We're staying at AKL for 11 nights and will be using cards for meals and just about everything we can, so how much cash will we need?
I'm thinking of tolls and tipping, really. I'll need some folding money for tips, obviously. And where do people get coins from for the toll booths? We'll be driving from MCO to AKL: I know it's a toll road, but don't know how much.
Any thoughts?

 

[UKDEB]

We pay for most things with a credit card and we usually take $100/day cash, which is probably more than enough.

Don't worry too much about coins for the tolls - you'll be fine as long as you've got plenty of $1 bills. You'll only need around $3 for the tolls between MCO and AKL ($5 to be on the safe side). Once you get to AKL, the tipping starts in earnest! There's so much conflicting advice about who you tip and when (valet when they take the car and/or bring it back, guy who takes the suitcases from the car/bellhop who takes them to your room, etc) that we end up tipping everyone. I'm sure they deliberately make sure it's a different person dealing with each element . We always leave a tip for housekeeping each day to make sure that the person who actually cleans the room is the person who receives the tip.

 

[UKDEB]

Meant to add that it's easier to use cash for any counter service restaurants at the parks.

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
We only took about $400 in cash on our last trip a month ago (18 nights).We used our room key to charge all Disney meals etc and included the tip on the charge. We also used our Nationwide credit card elsewhere as they don't charge any commission etc. Only time we used cash was for tipping baggage handlers, houskeeping etc and the places that didn't take c/c. In fact we used up our cash towards the end of the trip as we didn't want to bring it home..!!
We used the 528 road to I4 from the airport to Disney and went through 2 tolls 75 cents each. If you go through the green lane you can get change.

Mick.

 

[vernon]

I don't see any real downside in having a reasonable amount of $ cash with you. Worst case scenario is you didn't need it and you can use any left over to pay off some of the hotel bill (paying the balance on your credit card. As Mick said, as you get towards the end of your holiday you can easily use the cash up instead of using cards. Personally I'd always prefer to have a reasonable amount of cash on me. I'd take at least $750 and probably more than $1,000. There are lots of places (drinkcarts, icecream and food carts as well as the counterservice outlets) where cash is either the only option or certainly the easiest.